Carlos M. Techera from New York City, a former D2 Distance Runner turned into an Ultradistance Runner, Pre-Ranger Course instructor, and new Drill Sergeant.
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Carlos M. Techera from New York City, a former D2 Distance Runner turned into an Ultradistance Runner, Pre-Ranger Course instructor, and new Drill Sergeant.
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Fit to Lead Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fittolead.inc/
Yeah, you're not defined by your mistakes. You're not defined by the mistakes that you make in life. A lot of people like to think about how there's like heliocentric view about themselves. Like, everything revolves around themselves. But in reality, like the universe doesn't care. Yeah, it'll, it'll continue, the universe will continue without you. Without those, those choices that you make. So just live in that moment, embrace that failure. It's the greatest tool for people like it, being able to fail and learn from your failures is an amazing leadership tool to grow further. All right, everyone, welcome back to fit to lead. We are joined here by the Great and Powerful steps are to cure. I probably said that wrong, but I'm sorry tech for it for all of us who are bad at pronouncing names. So he is originally from New York City and a former D to distance runner. He's an instructor at the pre Ranger program at Fort Carson, Colorado, has three deployments to Afghanistan and one to Kuwait and Syria. And he's had quite an interesting 2020. He had turned into an ultra distance runner, and has recently completed eight marathons and 150 K and 150 miler all within 2020. So talk about a year of accomplishments. He is in on orders to be a drill sergeant next month, two amazing kids. Both are named after heroes. And he has a wonderful wife who has been there with him several edge. So thanks so much, Carlos, and welcome to the show. We're super happy to have you. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Well, I would love to just get started with your 2020 journey and just tell us how you took this otherwise pretty dismal year and made something great out of it. Why what made you want to get into ultra distance running last year 2020 was just a really bad year for a lot of people. And I'm not the type of person to like, live in that negativity. So I decided I was like, well, since the gyms are closed, I have my own gym at home. I just ruptured my came back from a ruptured Achilles injury. And I came back from deployment a couple months beforehand. And I decided I was like, I have to do something. Now, while I'm still relatively young, I'm only 33 years old, so relatively young, and something that's feared me, especially in my young, young life in my early 20s. And that was the marathon like, I've done 21 mile runs for when I was in college. In college, I was a four sub 420 miler 2530 and change for the five miles. And then I tried out for the Olympic trials in 2010. Right before I joined in, and I missed qualifying for the trials by a minute and a half in the half marathon for the for the marathon at the time. And this is like 1415 years ago. So the time now is just the time is now just a qualifier are pretty fast. But when I was there is like 15 minutes slower. So I ran 115 and qualifying time was sub 113 30. So I ran my team flat and I was a million, roughly one and a half. But I still PR by over two minutes in that race. But I mean that acidized I joined the military and then my running career, and all that distance running, like slowed down a lot, especially after basic training airborne school. I think airborne school is the last time I was anywhere in the 10 minute range for the two mile. Yeah, I think I ran. I was just talking to my buddy the other day. He's like, I'd never seen anyone run sub 1020 on airborne and like airborne PT tests. And I was like, Yeah, I thought I was very, I was in good shape. It was coming out of a great college year and that half marathon, everything was great. But just like, just like everything else in the army, like being a good runner doesn't mean everything. Like you have to adapt, you have to be you have to be able to meet the needs that the your squad needs. And I found out really early in my military career that just being fast is not good enough. The second I got wait put on my back. I was like sucking, like one of the first couple of rocks and everything. Yeah, I'm only five, seven, but I have to run the whole time. And until my time in at second, I didn't have time or didn't have the skill set to understand my body. I'm under under way and moving. So I had to make a drastic change. So I had to cut down to I increase my time in the weight room and decrease the amount of mileage I was doing. But now fast forward. You know I've been in for 10 years. So fast forward 10 years, and I think I found a good medium. I'm roughly like 4050 pounds heavier than I was at my lightest and college running. Yeah, like you said I ran eight marathons. 150 K, well, it was a 33 mile or so it was a little bit. It's like 52k on my birthday, and a 50 miler. So those two ultra marathons I did this year, I decided that that I would do it for a greater purpose. And Joanie started GoFundMe and donate all the monies, all the money that was made from those two GoFundMe days to soldiers that need additional help on mental health. Oh, wow. Oh my gosh, I didn't know that part of the story. Yeah, so the first one I did so my first 50 miler was September 11. So September 11, was my first 50 miler. I've never did a 50 miler beforehand. And I decided Colorado just opened up for I think it was just three weeks actually just opened up. So there's a $50 with a mask on. On a one mile loop with a mask on. Yeah, I don't one mile loop. 50 laps. So yeah, 51 laps, I tapped 24 hours with the cut offs of marathon. So it was like it went from September 10 into September 11. And on September 11. It had a marathon of half marathon, and a 5k. All pre starting off at certain times and hadn't cut off times. So when everyone was done, everyone's zero hit on the clock. Everyone was done with everything. Hmm. So just I started. Yeah, so I started the ninth, like 4pm on the 10th of September, and then I ran till 4am. So for almost 12 hours. Well, no, I call the quiz at the at the end of 50 miles. So I trained up for 50 miler and had the intention of seeing if I could push myself to 100 miles in 24 hours. Mathematically, it looks it looks super simple. Like Yeah, I can do 4.2 miles every hour for 24 hours. But then there's things I found out during my training that I lagged, and I paid for it during that 50 miler and one of them was putting the time in. I've had I had a couple marathons were just like four hours and stuff. But after that eight hour mark, like I did on there's like my body went through something new. And I wasn't prepared for that. Absolutely. Yeah, I can imagine running for hours is completely different than running eight hours or 10 hours or 12 hours. Yeah, so what what kind of happened at the eight hour or eight hour mark? or How did your body change. So everything went well up to mile 40. And then from 40 to 45, my body just completely shut down. So that it was a sign in me that I was not ahead of my nutrition, like an ultra running you need to get you need to stay hydrated and fed early and stay ahead of the game because you don't get into too deep of a caloric deficit. Right? Yeah, I realized that my mile eight when I took my first bathroom break, and I was ahead on my body. Hydration was so hydration. I was good. My urine was really clear. There was no like no blood, no anything. So I literally took like a 15 minute break and ate all as much food as I possibly could like, I was running out of goose or is running out of the willingness to eat goose. Yeah, I just wanted some solid food. So I had some sandwiches, some peanut butter jelly sandwiches prepared. And I had a couple of those. And then I went right back at it. So literally at 45 miles. And then after a little food break. It was my body when was like a second wind. So from 45 to 50. It was every fad yourself. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Yeah, I got that. refeed. So I, I talked to one of the labs, I talked to the organizer of the of the race. And he's like, Oh, yeah, it's your first one, like 100 miles is a very far fetched goal. Maybe 80k would be something that you can you can reach. And I was like, Yeah, I think I could do that. So he's like, okay, just just six more miles and then you're you'll be done. Yeah. From 40 to 45. It was like a second when I was comfortable as cruising. I had someone to run with. That was a bad thing. Like you had to hide your mask on the whole time. Yeah, I had to. Like I didn't know anyone there. I met a lovely lady and her son, James. He was 53 years old and legally blind. Wow. And he was doing laps in the park with me. But he did 100 miler in under 24 hours. His mom was 7074 years old, and she was recruited. So that's another thing like you need for these ultra distance running. It's It's one thing to do it by yourself. It's like it's monument monumental to do it by yourself. But if you have a crew it's so much easier like so he had dudes come out and like take different parts of the run and Run with him, keep him on track, make sure that his mom was making sure that he was eating, drinking, like, that's something I would change, like I would invest in having like a body or something come down unit for the night and then just making sure that I'm ahead on my food and my water. Mm hmm. Yeah, it sounds like it would be a lot to keep track of 24 hours while you're trying to run thinking of like, all these things, making sure that you're ahead. Yeah. And knowing how many calories you've burned. And what's the next step for you? And when's your next big break? And if you're on pace or office, they have that so interesting. So you spent the year kind of running these marathons like you ran eight marathons this year, and then kind of ended the year with this longer run. Is that right? Oh, yeah, I did one in September, and then on my birthday, November, okay, another fundraiser. And I had a buddy of mine who's a chaplains assistant. Out here, okay, person, his name is Steve. And he, he just got back from like a LLC, maybe a week or two prior. And I don't know if you know, too much about the elevation change from like, sea level to like, 6000 feet that we're at, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts the elevation change. hurts a lot of people out here like, and like, it could be up to three months to your outcome to the height, especially in the military. You're always out of breath going up and down stairs. So he's like, Hey, I'll do it with you. And I was like, Hey, man, like, it's gonna be 33 miles at least. Yeah. And he's like, okay, that's like, he's like, Don't worry, I'll be good. I was like, okay, just make sure you bring enough sustenance and enough water. He's like, no, don't worry, I'll be good. I've done a marathon before. I was like, Okay. I was like, okay, so we went out pretty, pretty quick. The first, I think we went like 420. For the first marathon, it was like four hour and 20 minutes. So for the first 26 miles, which is relatively quick, and we started the Air Force Academy, and then ran back to Fort Carson. Okay. So it's a, it's a track it's attracted to it's especially like, with rolling hills, the elevation change and everything. And at mile 21, he hit a wall real bad. But I, we dragged him along for the last last four or five miles. And then I ran, I ran to my house, and then I finished the rest of it on my treadmill here so that he can recover from that eventually went on. Wow. That's amazing that you persevered and still finish the race, even at home in your treadmill. I think that's remarkable. Must have been difficult to keep going at that point. At first it was it at first it was but I won't say like, I mentally knew that I was just going to put the time in there. I think that's the biggest thing. That's the people that holds a lot of people back is just the time. Like, the hardest part about running is putting on your clothes and getting out the door. Once you're out the door, you already have a lot of that time like hey, I'm gonna do this. And it's up to you like, it's up to your own mental willingness to like, either quit early, or add something else. But I feel like the hardest part of like, this whole thing was just getting out outside the door. Getting your shoes on is the hardest part. Once you get your shoes on, you're like, Okay, I'm on that mindset just switches on and you're like, Oh, I gotta get this done. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, so what was your training plan? What did your training plan look like this year getting ready for this huge races and running so much? compared to 2019? Was it a big change for you? Or had you already been running? How might someone like switch into the ultra running space? Okay, so in 2018, I ruptured my Achilles on an obstacle course, here at Fort Carson. And you know how like the military is it took three months till I got really seen and then I had surgery Christmas time, like literally right before Christmas, leave 2018 then I went on deployment. Four months after surgery, or three months after surgery, less than three months after surgery, I was already deployed. So I didn't even get my three, three month checkup, like 90 day checkup with my specialist on the the officer who did the surgery. So when I did that, I decided that running wasn't the thing for me. I was like, there. I was in Kuwait. So I was at bearing. So there was five K's 10 K's there. And I would do that just to see where I was at granted. They're nowhere near the same times that I ran in, in college or in high school. But I think I was just glad to get it done like just to run and be able to run again. And it wasn't till the we were we went to Syria and came back was was that. That running? h came back. I the moment it was it was October 30. So it was Halloween. It was Halloween of 2019 and baring had a 5k and it was the first time I ran my 5k after surgery in very low seven So I was in 21 inch change, or 22 minutes of really low 20 minutes for my five kids. And I was like, This isn't like I haven't been running a lot. I've been doing a lot of biking, and everything and then muscle memory kicked in. So I think it started there. And it was like, Where, where can I go? Can I can I go 15 years later or 12 years later, and be able to hit the times that I was hitting in college is a possibility to hit those times in my 30s that I hit in my early 20s and or even in my teens and I 18 when I was in high school. So right now I would be I would say I was I'm the equivalent of where I was the summer before going my junior year in high school. Wow, I've run a 12 1222 miler here elevation, so which roughly translates to just barely on their sub 12 minutes for a two mile x and a 34 inch change? Five miler. Yeah, and then like a half marathon and like 140 all these times are just I feel they're the good times in comparison to not being able to run because when I had a ruptured Achilles, I went to NTC with a completely ruptured Achilles granted, I was in a Bradley, so I didn't do a lot of walking. But every every place I had to walk, it was I was limping. It was a, I went to it. I had to, there was the birth of my daughter. A week later, seven days later, I was in the box, getting ready to finish my third, no fourth rotation at NTC. Wow, talk about resiliency, coming, just coming back from a broke, torn Achilles and reaching those times that you had previously been at all Well, going through deployment and an NTC rotation. Man, just that's really impressive. Awesome. So let's see. Yeah, let's talk about the the fundraising that you did for it. So why did you choose the mental health organization and what kind of got you connected with them? Okay, so I'm, the organization I picked was a fight the war with it. It's an organization made by a former 75th Ranger Regiment, widow, his name was Garrett Briggs. Garrett was in 175. I want to say, alpha, Charlie Company, 175. He had some mental troubles as we came back from deployment. And then he fell into a state of depression. And that was mostly triggered by other veterans from his community picking on him. And he sadly took his own life two weeks after the birth of his daughter. Wow. So yeah, it's extremely unfortunate. They couldn't get the help that he needed. In the military, it's really hard to get them the help mental health that you need without a stigma behind it, especially in the Combat Arms situation, or in that area. It's there's unforeseen stigma I myself, I definitely did myself and this last appointment, for example, we had a guy who decided that he wanted to go see mental health instead of the play with us. And I took it to heart and I was just like, why was he going out? Bah, blah. And then it took me for me to sit down and look at the situation from a different perspective and be like, Fuck, I'm an asshole for doing that. I I preached like, he should seek the help he needed and then when he did seek the I rebuttal then I was like, why are you Why do you need to do that man like, come join join the boys will take care of you. But in reality, what he did for himself better himself for the last especially the last two years. He's doing amazingly well. And it took it took that situation for me to look at it from different perspective to be like, wow, I was a dick when for saying one thing and doing another, I call myself out on that. I met the the widow Her name is Miranda, Mum, beautiful, amazing lady. She's, she has her daughter's amazing. And I told her, I was like, hey, I want to run and then raise money to do to give to you guys. So the goal was to raise 250 or$250 because there's a brand new organization, and it's they're partnered with nine foundations with my following like, like my followers, they gave me like 650 bucks. I was like, almost three times more than I expected to get. And I was taken back I was really humbled by it. And it motivated me to make sure that I did not DNF or did not finish so I was like I it It added that fuel to that fire to make sure that I finished that 50 miler and then the second organization so for my birthday, my birthday just lands on marine, the Marine Corps birthday, okay, we're both, like the marine for myself are both like, love childs of Valentine's Day. I talked to my buddy, the marine rapper, and I was like, hey, like, I'm gonna I want to raise money for You guys and whatever charity you want, because he's, he's the marine. And I'm, I'm an army dude. So I didn't know which one which organization would best best suit. But since he's in that community, I was like, I'm gonna raise the money, and then you're gonna do whatever you want with it. So we raised over$300 for that for the 33 mile or ADK attempt. And he donated between the Pat Tillman organization, and then two other two other marine corps organizations. And they both got nice, decent checks, I guess. Yeah, that's amazing. It's amazing that you not only took on this huge pursuit for yourself, and your personal fitness, and just seeing if you, you know, still had it, like, could still get down to where you were in college and, but also did it with a purpose and did it for an amazing cause, which I'm sure it has touched a lot of people's lives. So wonderful job, and your 2020 goals. I love to just get into now your military career. Just kind of talk about your journey to to staff sergeant. But yeah, I'd love to know just what originally interested in you in joining the military and what were some of your, like, formative experiences, like when first joining? Okay, so I joined in 2010, the biggest motivator for me was like, I'm from New York City. And my both my parents were first responders for 911 and my mother in law and father in law, were also there are cops at the time. So they respond, they were responding down at 911. I decided I wanted to join right after high school. So I was a sophomore in high school when 911 happened. And I was like, I was already in jrtc and stuff. So I was around a lot of people who were like, hey, sign me up. I want to go. Sure. Um, but my father sat me down one day, and he said, hey, look, you just you just got the scholarship for track. Like you're the first you're the only boy in the family. We're the first generation in our family to go to have the opportunity to go to college, try it out. Try go to college. And if the military is what you're calling is your calling, then you could try after either drop out or graduate. So for me, I did college for four years, and I didn't like it. I didn't like it. So then, one day, I just went to the recruiter and I was like, hey, sign me up. me my buddy. We both signed up for 1111 series contracts. And it was in it's right by Garden City, Long Island. What? Yeah, what's homestead in West Hempstead. So in your house University, we signed up, and then we were gone that summer, that summer of 2010. Again, so I had a good running background. So I didn't have anything on my scholarship all I mean, I didn't have anything on my contract. Like so no specialty schools whatsoever. I just signed a blank check. I was like, I don't care. I just wanted to go. So what was it about college that you didn't like? Or like what what drove you away from that? pursuing that path? It was a it was a combination of a lot of things. It was just like, I went to college for the wrong reasons. Like I went to college because I was in love with a girl who's on the volleyball team. And then she broke up with me like three months into it. Ducky stuck at a college. It was just so much like, I was 18 years old. I was like I was a very sheltered individual. Like I parents are, like, stereotypical Hispanics. Like I didn't get to go out anywhere. Like tracking field was my only event to go out and explore the city. I literally I would run everywhere I want I wanted to go so it was run away. And then yeah, I went to college. It was a combination of like my ad like I have attention deficit disorder. I know this I know I have it. I always Medicaid for it. Combination of them cutting me off from that. From that not being able to focus it took two months, two whole years to refocus to rewire my brain to focus on the tasks at hand. I was just so scatterbrained and being away from home didn't all that extreme freedom that you get like as an 18 year old first time away from home. It's, it's Yeah, a lot of people fail. And I was one of those dudes, I failed. I failed at college. It Yeah, it's a wild concept to me that we just send 18 year olds to this extremely expensive organization and tell them to choose something that they want to do for the rest of their lives. Like that makes any sense without giving them much like an on ramp to the real world. So I completely understand I think College is a wild concept. It's like go to go to this place for four years and find yourself. Yeah. And you're like just surrounded by like alcohol for the like, really like freedom with alcohol for the first time and everyone is everyone's promiscuous. Everyone's like, Yeah, all this freedom that you have, and it's it's a shock to your system. It's like the first time I went to Afghanistan, like the culture shot is completely different. It's a one at culture shop. Like, here you are, you're sheltered in your own High School. And then the next year you're on your own. You're on your own, the only thing that's sustain you for life is your ability to pay your your, your room, your room and board. And for me, it was like we had a food cart. Like, hey, you have this much money for the for this semester. And obviously wasn't it's never enough. I went to school in Long Island. So it was seen it was like, minimal amount of money that you could get. So yeah, I got out of college in 2010. I thought that trying out a little bit. Charles is my last attempt to get out. I feel I feel that that I came up with a slightly short, and then I joined the military. And then when the basic my first duty station, I got a airborne contract because I was the fastest kid in basic training. Yeah, they're like, Hey, you need to go to the at the 82nd. And I was Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll go I didn't. Again, I didn't know what it was. Yeah, I didn't know. So I went to airborne school. And then after airborne school, I got to my first duty station, I was a fourth brigade in the 82nd to 508 the catenary just coming back from a really bad doesn't tend to plummet, they lost. I think it was a record of like 76 dudes that that that rotational loan, and then countless more dudes took their lives after Oh, my so with the with the most famous most recently as a master an Andy. He was a, it was a it was a task and purpose article about it as a special forces guy. And in that article about him taking his own life, you mentioned that he doesn't tend to plot and being one of the biggest factors of why he was always depressed, that deployment was did a really bad number on that that unit. So what was I mean, if you if you know, the research, so do you know like, what was so triggering about that deployment? Okay, yeah, it was a combination of bad leadership choices, and then pushing whitespace. So allowing freedom of maneuver for the for the units in, otherwise known as like black areas, like where you don't go in, you know, how the 82nd is the 82nd will, they will push limits and push boundaries, as far as possible. And that's what they did during my 2012 deployment, we lost significantly a lot less, but we still lost. I mean, I want to say like roughly 20 individuals in our, in our battalion alone. And then in the recent years, we've started losing dudes to just depression and everything. And it's just, it's, it's the same mindset, like, Hey, we need to start pushing like these second will push, push, push, push, and live and do the recovery in the backhand side. It's not there. Like, in my personal opinion, they did a terrible job on the coming home part. And making sure everyone's mental well being was was a sound. But again, this is 2010 when we started doing like surveys and everything with the Duke University, about your mental well being everything, and fast forward down, there's a lot more services, a lot more avenues for you to go. After that deployment. I relisted to come to Fort Carson for the first time. And I was in again, another fourth brigade that doesn't exist. 112 So now it's second brigade. 112 in 112 infantry, I deployed in 2014. Again, this time, roughly around Yeah, I left this timeframe in 2014. And then I came back home in June of that same that same year cuz I was it all on Memorial Day of 2014. I was on a I was in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. And we got shot out from the sky and we landed by an AMA compound and we started taking more fire and then I would call for fire on on known enemy position. And then me and my buddy Chris. We pulled everyone out of the helicopter except for one dude. And then we we flew right back to calf and roll three that same that same well the next night basically, or the next morning, we were in Fall Apache and then we Yeah, we got shot down. And then we took motor fire. And me and him were Me, me him and Ryan, were the three Jews that were able to walk that night. Everybody else was their injuries are so severe that to my piano students aren't no sorry. My PL and my squad leader. Were almost dead. squalor died already. And he came back. Wow, we lost our youngest dude. Jake, and he's from Colorado. So Jake's from he's from Thornton, Colorado, and he was recently he was newly married to a lovely lovely woman and Katie so when we came back we stayed in Afghanistan and Chris stayed in Afghanistan for a month after and then our both our mental well beings were was reduced drained. Yeah, we I would describe it as a I literally lost my whole squad. And then my platoon started my whole. my platoon sergeant saw that me Chris performed as leaders at night, and I was an e4. I was a young young he five at the time. And he's like, you deserve a squad like you need. We know that you can react and you can perform under stressful situations. And that deployment wasn't really kinetic for maybe it was that event, we had a Mother's Day explosion that that hurt a lot of our guys. But overall, that deployment wasn't very kinetic, but that that event really shaped my life. Yeah, if it makes sense, like yeah, being in a helicopter crash, Afghanistan, and then why you're losing your whole squad to injury really changes you as an individual. So when my platoon tried to give me a new squad, I pulled him to the side and I was like, I was I was back for baby. Yeah, two weeks, we were in calf. And he was like, hey, Manny, you need to get back on line, you need to get back into the fight. And I looked at Chris and Chris was just not doing so well. Mentally. He needed a break. Like he, my buddy, Chris, like he took it really hard. And we had the least amount of injuries. I had a couple broken bones, mostly torn and strained ligaments on my whole left side from without like falling onto the ground. I had broke my left arm because my my upper receiver on my end for cracked it. And it bent the upper receiver on the floor. So the impact itself was just really bad for me, but compared to everyone else was not bad at all. So Chris, I talked to Chris and I was like, What do you want to do, Chris? I was like, I'm not gonna go. You're not going anywhere without me. And I'm not going to go without you. He's like, I want to go home. And I was like, I was like, let's go talk to the chaplain. Let's go home. And we did our we did our we did our best we need to go get seen everybody else's got seen. We're out of the 14 of us. Were the only two left in Afghanistan from that from that flight. Wow. I wrote a whole arm. So when I went came back, I did what did w TV and my, for me what helped me mentally accept what I went through and everything was writing everything down. Because my fear was because of my TBI that eventually I would forget things. And then human, the human is and it'll start adding things that didn't exist. Yeah. And then you got you once you start adding things and you have to start creeping in. And then they start changing your perspective and change your outlook on life. So I therapist I went to said write it down, write every every little detail down. And so you can't change it in your mind. And you can't everything is solidified. And you can't change anything. Because Yeah, when we saw the report everything, a lot of the things that we saw correlated with the reports. This like the 16, this 1510 or 1610 I think it's called after that. Yeah, it was, we came back we went to web. We recovered from our injuries. And then Chris relisted to go to 100 first, and I re enlisted to go to Hawaii. So I went to Hawaii. Before that, that July. So the accent was in May, June, we came back to the United States is just me and Chris. And we we came back and then July. We got to see the dude's in Fort Sam. So was the first time since May the end of May that we got to see our guys. So we drove down. We flew down to Fort Sam in Texas. Me Chris and Ryan. Because Ryan didn't get there. Didn't go to Germany didn't go to anywhere. He just got flown back. And it was the first time we got to see all the guys and like it's it's it's an emotional it's an emotional trip. Because like, you see, like my squad leader was a guy I looked up to like he was sniper qualified, he had his he had a couple deployments a 10th mountain in his reconnaissance section. Every time he talked to everyone, no matter what rank you were, if he was in the room and he was talking, everyone Shut the fuck up and just listen to him because he valuable. He brought that sense of like he he was important person in that room. And to see him like huge scars down both his legs from the crash. From swelling, seeing my lt with a helmet on because the vertebrae in his neck were cracked. And the wrong move. He would just it would snap his spinal cord if you die. You just take off his helmet like it was just like it was it was good to see the guys are doing well. But it was to see the aftermath of the of the accident was another thing. I'm so ready for the accident. Oh, my Lieutenant was getting ready to go to Ranger School. Because that was a big thing like lieutenants, avatrade attendants like hey, so he started running every day doing a lot of PT. He sat down the NCO went over op order classes for himself and us. It was the first time I ever got to see a full fledged operator. Not what it was like. Not like a PowerPoint with like, Hey, here's the metal bag has a bag plan everything but like straight from the Ranger handbook op order. If at the hospital I told them I was like, hey, sir, I'm gonna get your I'm gonna get you to your tap. I'm gonna go during school, I'm gonna get you at your tap. So when I realized it for Hawaii, they were, they were scheduled to deploy again. And I was ready to do that. But then they got off the tracker. I got got put in the reconnaissance section. And my platoon sergeant, I explained to my producer at the time, it was brand new platoon sergeant J. And I was like, Hey, sorry. I was like, I would love to go to Ranger School, but I want to get over my fear of helicopters. Yeah, I explained what happened. So he's like, all right. He's like, you go to airsoft school, and why they have their own airsoft school. So that November, so it was like yesterday, where I graduated, like, five years ago. Yeah, roughly like five years ago. yesterday. I graduate from air assault school. After I failed. I failed the first time. I failed the road climb. I failed the road climb. I blamed it on like Hawaii's moist conditions and everything. And then some female NCO just flew up. The instructor looked at me like I do like you fail, dude. So I went back to my unit. fuckin poopy face is shit. And my man, that must have been hard. I can understand how that that's just like a bad day, right there. Oh, yeah. I thought I did everything right. Like, I want everyone. I thought they were gonna do this stereotypical, like the typical army left face falling in love kind of thing. I was the first person. In reality, I was the last person to leave. So by the time it was like, it was Hawaii, it rains like 280 days of the year. So like 10 o'clock in the afternoon, or 10 o'clock in the morning. It's like, it's there's a mist, and every atom is wet. So the ropes were but she just she just flew up there and just whatever hope I had, like being able to do it again. Just got shot down. I went, I went back to my platoon sergeant that day. He's like, he told me I explained what happened. And he's like, wow, that's that's bad luck. You're going to the next class. And I was like, okay, that Thank you. So I go to the next class. But in between there, I wasn't going to let that same failure that I had before. happening again. So every day, five rope climbs, five rope climbs, wet, dry. I was after PT at the end of the day before I left five rope climbs. So I go back to the next class. I crushed it. And then we go into the field for two weeks. I get to come out of the field. Take a weekend early. And then I went to the free Ranger program. In Hawaii, the prpp pre Ranger program. I go through I make you by the skin my boots. Like when I'm telling you this, you know my boots like 259 45 I think was my 12 miler. And if you've never heard about the 12 mile course out there in Hawaii, it's so muddy. It's so hilly, and you need at least 22 minutes on that last mile because it's a slow, gradual incline all the way back. So I made I made the rock by the skin my boots, again, not a good rocker. Never I've never been a good rocker 2016 I went to the 03 class of Ranger School failed. Darby The first time you picked up and then Sorry, I went 0404 picked up 05 graduated. Then I came back and then my platoon star called the day of graduation. He's like, Hey, man, I got you a slot for Pathfinder. Do you want to go? And I was like, No, absolutely. I said I want to go home. Hey, I missed I miss miss Hawaii. I missed the boys. I miss my wife. I went miss my kids. There's no way I'm gonna put myself through that stuff again. So he's like, okay, as promised, like he promised me 10 free days a week to get back. So me my wife, we flew to Colorado. We came back to Katie. And then we saw Katie. So Jake's Jake's widow. Okay. So we visited Jake on his grave site. I left the tab that that I got graduated, I put it in his grave. And then I went and I went to see my Lieutenant, because he was in the area visiting. And I told him Hey, sir, like, I did it. I got your tap man. And it was a very emotional time for me. Yeah, I get it. Like Ranger School is not an end all be all for the military. I understand it. Like I understand the whole concept. Like it's just a military school. It's not it's not a personality trait. I get that. But for me, it gave me a better meaning like, obviously being in that helicopter crash and reacting accordingly like and how an NCO is I knew I could lead. I knew I had skill set to lead but in the eyes of the army in the eyes of the military, I wasn't qualified to lead So if I wanted to continue the aspirations of being in the military, I needed to go to that school for myself and for the guys, and for future guys. So I know that I know that what limitations I put on myself are self are self employed. So pushing yourself you can that school is a great school to help you push yourself. Yeah, yeah. To see what you're capable of, to prove it to yourself, if no one else to yourself that you can do something so difficult. Yeah, exactly. So then fast forward a year. I got promoted to e6. When I came back. Truth be told. I was a piece of shitty five. When I came back. I was really cocky after Ranger School. Yeah. I was I was like, Oh, yeah, sure. I just I'm gonna have a sweet and Sue er this year like, Oh, yeah. I was like, use your packs. NCO of the month. The second I got back. Yeah, I got nominated for was a USA Volunteer of the Year for Hawaii. I got because I was volunteering for a foundation at that time, and I was on cloud nine. So I was very stoked to be there. And then I went to the board. I failed. I went to the board, I felt Wow. So interesting. To the end to the reporter, I pat i won that. So I was like, I was on a snowball like as airsoft score, fail, snowball. ratio fail. All pass. I came back I had two boards for NCR the quarter for brigade crushed it, then division crushed it, then no, sorry, not division, battalion brigade. And then I went to division and came in second. So I was like, okay, small setback, got user Pac. NCO of the month. I was like, I'm on cloud nine. So I go to my board for at least six. And I went with the wrong mentality. I was like, I was burnt out. I was burned out. I was I thought, Hey, I did so much for the for the battalion already represented at the time really well. I thought that like, Hey, I'm just gonna they're just gonna give me it. Yeah, I'm wrong. I was wrong. I got kicked out of the board. And I told I was told not to return. Oh, my gosh, yeah. Wow. And that was the second time I I failed the e6 board was the second time 56 for the first time was at Carson. Right before I PCs, and he's like, hey, you're not ready. I was like, start making you know, who you don't know. I was like, you know, you know, like, you weren't at this last deployment. I want to hold leadership. My leadership send me here super fast, because they saw something that you didn't see. And again, I I cursed out the SAR major because he he asked me where my purple heart was. And because of it was considered an accident at the time, all valid awards are taken off the table. So I was at first. And I got downgraded to a bronze star with valor, and that got downgraded to a bronze star. So my provar doesn't exist, my silver star doesn't exist. And that's just how it is in the armor. No, I'm saying that. It is it is. It's not going to bring back it's not gonna bring back, Jake. So I really don't it to me doesn't really matter. Like it's a piece of cloth. does it represent something? No, absolutely not. It only it only holds value. If I give it value. And you know the truth, you know, like those things I'll meet like awards, you know, whatever. They can mean something for like five minutes. But at the end of the day, once that wears off, you know the truth in what happened and how you reacted. And that's probably the most valuable thing and you carry that with you forward. Even if you mean to or not, you know? Yeah. So then I decided to just go back. So I went back to the board. We had a brand new SAR major, our also our major left brand new star major. I was just I was really lucky. It was my old SAR major from my first duty station. Oh, cool. Yeah. And he's like, and I was a board, I crushed the board. I filled the only questions I failed where there were stupid questions. I failed. There was like, it was like, Who's buried in the, the, to the Unknown Soldier? And I was just like, it was a trick question. Like, he's like, correct. And I was like, Oh, yeah, you're wrong, but Okay, great. So fast forward, I got my e6. And then I was coming up to my last couple months in Hawaii. So January 2018. I decided to go out for best during tryouts. I was like, I'm done. Like, I don't I don't want to do this. I just need a break. And I want to try this event. Like, there's no way. One second one second my dogs. Oh, yeah, no worries. Okay. So fast forward. I went to best train Ranger tryouts for Hawaii. I made the team and then I got to represent 25th in 2018 Best Ranger competition. I was very stoked to do that. It was an amazing experience. From what I hear. It's the second best TTY you can ever do. First one being doing the army 10 miler, I heard that's like the best TTY to do in the military. Yeah, I never had the opportunity to do it. And represent. Yeah, you definitely should. It's like visiting VC for like, 10 whole days beforehand. And then a couple days after, so has, from what I've heard, so it's an amazing time. All right, hope it's on my list. So then afterwards, um, I did. I came down orders for RTB. So I had orders to go to returning Battalion, after best Ranger. And I called in branch, and I asked him, there was one like, so I set goals for myself, when I came to Hawaii. So accident happened. And I was like, I need, I need four things, I need to do four things. I knocked out three of them. The fourth one was so the first one was Ranger School. second one was Air Assault school. Third one was combatives, level two. And then fourth one was the Korean Defense medal. Because I thought I would go on a Elisa deployment or pathways deployment with Hawaii. When I found out I wasn't going to that I just like, Hey, I'm putting putting all my eggs in one basket, and best Ranger. So I changed that goal to competing best Ranger. So I knocked out those four goals. And then when I was I came back, my my time was my time was up. So I came down in order to our TV, I looked at my wife, I was like I have, I have one more thing I want to do before I start going back into trade off or go into trade for the first time. And that was like, I need a third deployment. I need another deployment, I need to come back on my own terms. Like I was taking out on my second deployment outside my own terms. And for me, I knew mentally if I wanted to stay mentally sane, I needed a third deployment and not have a what if not have a Can I do that again? Can I do what happened in my second deployment? Can I react once again? Like if the shit hits the fan? Will I be able to react? Yeah. And then Luckily, I talked to my branch manager. He's like, hey, look, for Carson is changing completely. There's not gonna be a light infantry any world anymore. We're there. I can only get you a slot to the mechanized world. And I was like, well, I've done everything else. Hawaii, I was a strong striker. at second. I was light infantry, why not diversify myself and be armored or mechanized infantry? Yeah. So I said, Yeah, let's do it. Again, this is another story where it's like, how much of a failure I am. And so by first so I get to my unit, I get sent into gunnery really quick. Maybe a month or two after so I do all the all the presets and everything, cram everything I need to do in the mechanized world, you need to score seven out of 10 and a 700. So I scored seven out of 10 701. Hell yeah. That the standard, bare minimum. So I took that as like a huge shot the chin like is my platoon sergeant at the time was a mechanized guy in and out and he's just like, you just brought down the whole platoon average with everything. And I was just like, Oh, damn, like, I'm really sorry. I was like, I told you I wasn't. I didn't think I was ready at the time. I was like, but I still pass a q1 instead of q2, which is passing on your second attempt, you know, I'm saying yeah. So I took that to heart. I got on this next deployment. And we are in Kuwait for the first half. And then we had another gunnery there. I bet down and I stayed with that master gunner like day in and day out. And I wanted to make sure that I wasn't gonna have 701 again. Luckily for me, I mean, my gunner, same gunners before we scored 901902. I nine out of 10. So I improved over to two points. Yeah. Significant. Yeah, significant. And then I was Top Gun for four months. So I was pretty quick about that. Yeah. After that, it came back from deployment for Carson started their pre reentry program. And I emailed the NCIC in charge of it. And I said, Hey, I'm Katie complete. I'm exactly what you're looking for. Paper wise, physically, or, or anything else I could. Who knows right? But paper wise, I was exactly what you're looking for an e6 because kt complete and didn't didn't make the board to make the sound board. January of last year. I finished my instructor course. I got my instructor back. I'm getting my instructor badge now. But fast forward. We had a nice little break before I COVID everything, but I got to send over 120 people so far. To Ranger School right now we have like a 56% or 59% success rate. And it's, I mean, I'm not going to take credit for all of it, because it's the other instructors as well. The other instructors are just amazing. And they care just as much. And it's, it's refreshing, because like, this whole program at Fort Carson, for the last eight months, was ran by the sixes, and any five, like 60 sixes and 185. Wow. And it's been extremely successful. When NGOs are on the same page, and they have theirs. They're all highly motivated. And there's not never a one of those moments was like, I don't wanna do it. Like if someone wants to do something, everyone says voluntarily, Hey, I'll do it. I'll do it. I do it. And it's, it gets things done so much easier, and so much more, more efficient. Yeah, sounds like a really cohesive team. You're really important. That's awesome. Well, that's, you have a remarkable story. Thank you all for sharing all of that with us. And I know you're only 10 years in. But so you mentioned back in your helicopter crash, you responded well in a stressful situation. And that really made a huge difference in how the event went. Can you tell us? How does someone maybe become better at responding in stressful situations? Or if somebody wanted to work on that to become a better leader? Is there anything that you think they could do to get better in that area? Okay, so the one thing that definitely helped me was, I had a medic beforehand, before we deployed, because our mission said changed. We were we're just supposed to be doing patrols out of a calf in 2014, and our platoon came down on the aerial reaction force for all of our see south. So we were us at our platoon. And the scouts were split up. So our mission set was to be more of a setup security and provide aid like this first aid. So we're just going to pick up, pick up, bodies, pick up, injured, Afghanis, everything, down aircraft, all that stuff. So our medic said, the best thing that we could do is send a lot of these deucey EMT score school. So the army paid for 20 of us to go to EMT, a lovely lady nurse, Nancy shakeshaft, was in charge of all that, and she was a EMT certified. And I think what helped me the most was volunteering for the mass cows simulation during that class, we would have simulations and like, like, how would you respond as an EMT coming to a huge disaster area. And if I, if I didn't volunteer for that one stressful situation, where they made real, like they had fires going on, the alarms are going off. People were had bandages and actual looking injuries. That's what helped me get with when that accident happened. It was just another repetition of it. Show the putting yourself in a stressful and controlled environment makes it more easy for you to react when the time actually does come. And the same thing with Ranger School. Like the whole point of school is to react to stressful situations. When you're hungry. You're tired. Yeah. And you've been moving all day. Like do those just those stress factors. stress factors alone builds your confidence to be able to do something when the time comes. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So kind of going into that. What What advice would you give to someone who is getting maybe getting ready to come to pre Ranger? What would What do you recommend they do to prepare? So if someone prepare? So the best advice I've ever gotten, and it's, I've stuck to it is just worry about a 25 meter target. Yeah, too many young inlet young, younger, younger enlisted dudes and brand new tenants coming out of iBook. That's a question you always ask, like, what do I do to get prepared? I was like, I'm scared about patrols. I'm scared about mountains. I'm scared about Florida. And then at the end of day, it's like you got to get there. First. You have to pass that peak, you need to pass push ups to worry about the five mile run. Yeah, no work on the variables you can control. You can control your your push ups and how good they look. Right. You can you can do sit ups, control, you can control that. But Ranger School and like a lot of other schools are just, you don't you can't control every variable. So just worry about 25 meter target. And stop worrying about that 301 in the back until you get up to it until it's it's online. But yeah, it's 25 meter target, like worried about that? And then successful snowball? Yeah. So if someone were getting ready to go to pre Ranger, the 25 meter target, they could be working on push ups sit ups, what else would you recommend? five mile run? Okay. Okay, Jake, She's upstairs. Awesome. And so you have shown to so many examples of how you're such a resilient individual how you've met failure, and then build yourself back up. What would you say to someone who, you know, has many met one of their first big failures in their career, and they're just, they don't know how to take the next steps to build themselves up or to humble themselves to go after that next goal. Any advice you'd give to someone who's like in their in their failure right now? Yeah, you're not defined by your mistakes. You're not defined by the mistakes that you make in life. Like, a lot of people like to think about it, like, have this like heliocentric view about themselves. Like, everything revolves around themselves, but in reality, like the universe doesn't care. Yeah, it'll it'll continue. So like your the universe will continue without you. Like without those those choices that you make. So just live in that moment, like, embrace that failure. It's the greatest like a tool for people like it, being able to fail and learn from your failures. is an amazing leadership tool to grow further. Yeah, absolutely. No one's looking at you that that closely as close as you look at yourself, you said yet the World War move on? And are you going to move on with it and continue to grow from your failures. So that's awesome. And then wanted to touch on mental health again, so you said that you journaling really helped you or just writing it all down? Everything that happened? What, what do you still Is there anything that you still continue to do to help with your mental health or anything that you've seen your your friends, that has really helped them? Anyone who may be struggling on that side of the house, right, I go to counseling, I go, I go, I, the way I think about it, it's um, you go to the gym to work out your muscles and everything. But one of your most powerful muscles is your mind. So why not go to a professional if you're, let's say you're overweight, and then your New Year's resolution? And it's like, hey, I want to lose weight, I want to look fit and everything, you'd go to a personal trainer, right? Why to what would it be the difference for me like, Hey, I'm struggling mentally, I'm not processing things, as well as I used to, why not go see a personal trainer for your mind. So I go, I used to go for marriage counseling. It was a great, it's a great tool. The army provides it. But there's also a lot of nonprofit organizations out there that go past your chain of command they'll pay for for counseling for you fight the war within is one of those organizations that does that. Now with COVID, they do a lot of you get to call a counselor or FaceTime with one and they'll pay for their services. Oh, that's great to know. So in my personal opinion, I think it's um, it's an overstep for in the military, for some of the find out about your mental, like, go into counseling everything. I think it's a personal like HIPAA violation. Obviously, it's not because it come in and just know where you're at and everything. But there's always a there's a ways ago around it. And there's nonprofit organizations out there. The sad truth is like, once your commander finds out that you're depressed or something, it can have a negative effect on you. And or it gets by tiny gets to him, it's already too late. You're a you've already lost your life. Yeah. So knowing that out there that there's there's definitely sources out there for and it doesn't even have to be like military. They do first responders. There's tons of counseling out there. And there's tons of you that want to help. Yeah, I think it's definitely changing. How do you think that we like just as a whole as a community in the military can just help to end the stigma faster? Like you said, it is changing, but they're still, you know, is it stigma in some places, especially I'm sure a lot of units that you've been in any experience with that or any ideas on how we come together? Just put your chain of command into counseling? Yeah, do the counseling, let them they see the expects, make sure they go to counseling, right. I've talked to eh, see sevens and everything. It's like, they go to counseling all the time. Yeah. And they are the one they had the same signal growing up, they're like, Hey, I don't want to do it's I don't want to be looked at like a failure on weak or anything. And now that they do is like, I wish I would have done it earlier. But if you force your first sergeant, let's just even go even lower your platoon sergeant to your, to your company commander, that leadership right there forced them to go, even if it's like three, three times, and they if they don't get a single benefit out of it, which I doubt they won't. Like they will be that that resource will be available to them a lot, a lot easier. And also, I think it's just there's a whole The whole promotion too quickly thing that negates experiences to happen. Like for example, like you'll you'll hear about like, e6 is me guys making e6 in four years. Right? How much experience does that person have? That's so quick? Yeah. Same thing for a company commander, the company commander would be who's roughly like, what? Around 26 to 28 years old. Right? And there's that how much exposure they have. So from 23 to 26, is their basic their experience in the military. Before that, it's college. Right? So that's maybe a rotation to rotations to train rotations at best. Yeah. How do you how do you? How do you learn? minimum repetition? repetitions? Yeah, I think it's just like, I think allowing the higher like the middle Echelon, because I believe the higher ones are our two disconnected. No problem. There's a disconnected from the from the actual situation to have a valuable outcome for that battalion. But who has the best? Like, what's a battalion commander? gonna look into the squad leader? Right? Yeah. Yeah, battalion commander is looking into a squad leader squad. Everyone on that Echelon? Yeah, yeah. So the best medium, which is, your middle person is from that lowest private to your company? Commander? Yeah, a company commander for sarn. Team, to the battalion commander in the SAR major, right, that middle team is in both that that's the middleman so they can have the biggest influence the biggest impact on that immediate community. So if you if you make sure those platoon sergeants was first sergeants in this company, commanders go see counseling, you'll change the environment and change the outlook of the whole military itself. Because that's, that's the biggest thing, especially on the enlisted side. You don't really like a pitch to your resume. Sorry. Yeah. That's the biggest thing standing for lieutenant. You don't want to look like a like a chode. To your company. Commander. Yeah. You don't want to be that. You? You have what three different platoons usually. Right? You don't want to be the low tier lieutenant. Yeah, that that middle ground has. Yeah, huge amount of influence up and down. And yeah, they lead the you know, lead from the front, go to counseling yourself, have your chain of command, go to counseling, and just show people that it's, it's nothing to be ashamed of, or nothing. It's going to slow you down. It'll help you help the team in the long run for sure. Awesome. Well, just one last question is what do you if you can name three words or three things to go by that make a great leader and, and in the military or just in your personal life? How would you describe a great leader? Three? I can't go with like a three words. Would you like to to lead like that book? Dare to lead? Okay. Yeah, yeah, I have actually. It's a great book. But for me, what defines a great leader is someone who's not afraid to just get like what I want to say, like, not gonna get their peepee slapped, like, okay, yeah, you want to be able to be that middle ground? For for the support as your shirt for Okay, so let's talk about gotcha. Yeah. Okay, so the word sergeant, right, it comes from the French word to lead, to serve, to serve, right comes from to serve. And that's what we do as noncommissioned officers. We serve. We serve those below us, the people, the American people that they entrusted their younger enlisted dude, to be supportive to serve them. And then we also serve the people above us who are in charge of us. Yeah. So what makes a good leader versus a bad leader is just caring, yeah, caring. If you care for the people that you are in charge of. There's nothing you can't do, you know, I'm saying right here, if your hearts in the right place, and your intentions are pure, or come from a good place, then you are looking out for your subordinates. And then you're also looking out for the well being of the charging, because at the end of the day, that's that's what the mill, the military is a business. Right? The military is just like, hey, I need x y&z done. How you get it done, is you have command control and mission command, right. And like you have that command control is your brand new Lieutenant, and your PC is just like, Hey, I'm gonna micromanaging everything you're gonna do. You're you as a lieutenant. You're trying to go from mission command, the command control to mission command. So where you're getting everything, everything that's nitpick the value, like, Hey, this is this is the next step. This is a step after that. You want to start moving to the right, you want to start paying past isn't standard. Get there? That's where you're trying to work. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Just like I love that. You said if your words are pure if you care, there's nothing you can't do. And I couldn't agree more. So thank you for closing us off with those great words of wisdom. Um, where can people find you and get more of your awesome words of wisdom and follow along your athletic journey? You're a great account to follow on Instagram for sure. Yeah. So all I have, um, well I have is my Instagram and then my YouTube channel. My YouTube channel is as the same as my handle as my Instagram. So era underscore of underscore tech. Basically what I put on my YouTube channel is then CEOs perspective on on schools. There's a lot of I'm no Nick bear. I'm not trying to go breaks sub three hours for the marathon walling. 200 pounds. pounds, not six plus now not six feet plus. But yeah, my channel is mostly about that. And then once everything still slows down after Joestar school, I'm gonna add more more content about just day to day life is in the military. And as a dad, it's tough been. Yeah, we didn't even touch on that. I'm sure balancing military being a dad of two, you balance so much. In your you're doing a well, putting out a great message in the meantime. So keep it up. Like we need more of it. The more positive people out there spreading the good word. I think it's really important. So I appreciate the time and thank you for having me even though it's probably really late there. Oh, it's not too bad. It's like 1900 right now, so Okay, it's not bad now. But yeah, no, thank you for your time. And everyone go follow along. Carlos, his handle and everything will be in the show notes and we'll talk to you soon. All right. Thank you so much.